


the strength you have together

by danhoweiis



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-How to Train Your Dragon 2, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:41:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23716093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danhoweiis/pseuds/danhoweiis
Summary: hiccup is pretty stubborn when it comes to asking for help but when he finally does, he wishes he hadn't
Relationships: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	the strength you have together

“Where are you going?”

“Oh- Astrid, I uh...I’m just going for a walk.”

“At 1 in the morning? With Toothless?”

“Yeah!”

Astrid stared at him, arms folded and an eyebrow raised.

Hiccup sighed defeatedly. “Fine, I was just gonna go for a quick flight.”

“You should be asleep,”

Hiccup scratched his head. “Can’t.”

“Hiccup if you need to talk to someone you can talk to me. I know you...you’ve got a lot on your plate right now but you don’t have to do this all alone.”

“I’m not alone. I have Toothless.” He said jokingly, giving Toothless’ head a pat. “Look, please don’t tell anyone, I just want to go off by myself. I won’t be long.” He pleaded.

“Fine. But if you’re not back by morning though I’m sending a search party.”

-

They were flying just above the cloud line, the moon the only light illuminating Hiccup’s face as he lay on his back across Toothless. With everything going on in his life right now this was the only time he felt true peace, the only place where he could think.

He couldn’t be chief, there was no way. His father had made a mistake, Gobber would surely be much better than him. Gods, anyone would be better than him. He sighed and Toothless made a low purring noise.

“I can’t do this Toothless. I can’t, I’m not dad. I’m not like him.”

It felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. An entire village to care for and feed, plus his mother who was now back in his life and then there was Astrid. He felt like he needed another 3 versions of himself just to get everything done. The first few weeks had been fine. Fuelled with the adrenaline of Drago’s defeat and the excitement of being chief and having his mother back among his people everything had seemed easy. But now he was realising what a big task he had on his hands. His free time had been reduced to practically nothing, which was why he had resorted to flying with Toothless in the middle of the night which was less than ideal.

Hiccup sat up and exhaled. The wind was rushing past his face and through his hair. “Let’s head back bud.”

-

They landed back on Berk and Toothless made his way back to their house.

“I’m just gonna see Astrid bud, you go on ahead.”

Toothless growled in response and bounded through the village towards the house.

Hiccup made his way through the huts towards Astrid’s. He went around the back and snuck in through the open window. Astrid was curled up on her bed, axe still in her hand as she so often slept.

“Astrid,” Hiccup whispered as he tried to stealthily make his way over to her without waking her up (something that was hard to do considering he had a metal foot.) “Astrid, wake up.”

“What, who’s there-” Astrid said, bolting up, axe held out in front of her.

“Woah woah, it’s just me.” He said, arms held up in front of him. 

“Oh my gods, you frightened me to death!” She said, putting her axe down.

“Sorry,” He chuckled, sitting on the edge of her bed. “I just wanted to let you know I was back. And to apologise.”

“For what?”

“For being an idiot. For not accepting your help and pretending everything was fine when it’s not.”

She reached a hand forward and brushed some hair from his forehead. “You’re as stubborn as your dad. You don’t have to do this alone, I’m here, and your mum, and Gobber, and Fishlegs and Snot- yeah maybe not him. But we’re all here.”

Hiccup smiled. “Maybe you should be chief. You’d be better than me.”

“I would not.”

“Astrid, who are you talking to?” Came the voice of Astrid’s mother.

Hiccup immediately jumped from the bed and took a few steps back. “Oh hi Mr and Mrs Hofferson. I was just...doing my regular...evening checks!” He said quickly. “Yes, I thought I heard some noises near your house and wanted to check on Astrid but all seems to be in order here so I’ll just be going.” He said awkwardly as he made his way across the room to leave through the front door. “Goodnight,”

Astrid’s parents looked at him, dumbfounded. “Goodnight Chief.” Astrid’s mother said, sounding confused as Hiccup let himself out, closing the door behind him.

Astrid chuckled and hoped her face didn’t look too guilty. “Well goodnight mum. Goodnight dad.” 

“Do they think we’re stupid?” Her mum mumbled as they made their way back up the stairs.

-

Hiccup came and found Astrid the next morning. She was training in the arena and he almost got an axe to the face when he interrupted her mid fight.

“Hey careful!”

“You should watch where you’re going.” She replied, brushing her fringe from her face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong! Is it so bad of me to want to see my girlfrien- Okay, I need your help.” He said, seeing the unconvincing look on Astrid’s face. “I sort of promised we’d start a sort training academy for the children and Gobber said he’d do it forgetting he has an entire forge to run and I can’t do it because I have an entire village to look after and-”

“So you’re asking me to do it?”

“Yeah, it was either your or Snotlout and we know how that would have turned out. Look, you said to ask you for help and to talk to you so this is me...asking for help.”

“No, I’m impressed. Look at you, listening to my advice.”

“Yeah okay now isn’t the time for I-told-you-so’s. I owe you.” He said quickly and gave her a peck on the cheek. He rushed out of the arena before Astrid had even gotten a chance to ask what sort of things she would be doing with them.

-

Hiccup and Fishlegs were sitting at the head table in the great hall, going over plans and notes for the new dragon huts they were planning on building.

“I have this brilliant idea for a new feeding station, water food and perches all in one spot!” Fishlegs said, pointing at a design he’d drawn. “And these specialised Gronckle huts. With built in beds and rocks for eating!” He said excitedly.

“Yeah, these look great Fishlegs. I’ll draw up some plans and we can-”

The door to the great hall opened, sending a gust of wind through the room. Astrid came marching through the tables where small groups of people were sitting around drinking.

“Hiccup Haddock.” She said loudly, her eyes practically boring a hole through Hiccup’s head as she walked straight towards him.

“I think I’ll leave you to this.” Fishlegs said, patting him on the shoulder and shuffling away.

Astrid slammed her hands on the table, making Hiccup jump and causing the pile of papers to slide onto the floor. “When you said children, I was expecting teens, like 14, 15 year olds not actual 8 year old children!”

Hiccup stuttered and began collecting up the papers just for something to do so he didn’t have to look into Astrid’s icy stare. “Oh, d-did I not mention that? It must have slipped my mind. Surely they weren’t that bad were they?”

“All they wanted to do was learn to fly. They didn’t want to learn anything about dragons and half of them couldn’t even hold up an axe.”

Hiccup chuckled awkwardly and shrugged. “I, oh well...well done for dealing with them. I’ll tell the parents we won’t be doing it again.”

Astrid fixed him with a glare. “You should thank Thor there’s a table between us or I‘d have you pinned against that wall.”

She slammed the table again and stormed out, angry that her entire afternoon had been wasted but also slightly pleased with herself, that even though her boyfriend was the chief she could still manage to scare him half to death.

“Alright, bye Astrid,” Hiccup called after her, in a jokey tone. “I love you too.” He chuckled awkwardly and looked around at some of the other vikings who had stopped to listen in on their heated conversation. That was the last time he asked Astrid to help him with something like that.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos/comments are appreciated  
> i just rlly love writing hiccup as a chief its such an interesting narrative and seeing how he deals with it all


End file.
